- 20/01/2021
- Posted by: Marta
- Category: News
The BEAMitup project, funded by the European consortium EIT Food, has launched a survey to collect the experiences and needs of agri-food companies, identify best practices and develop new solutions that allow the sector to work safely during and after the pandemic.
Among the Partner the innovative Italian SME MICROBION
One of the biggest challenges of the pandemic, linked to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, is to guarantee the safety of the workplace, especially in the agri-food sector, avoiding that outbreaks lead to interruptions in activity and, in some cases, even to the active spread of the virus through raw materials or finished products, such as frozen foods or meats.
The question is important not only in terms of public health, but also from a commercial point of view, with several cases of Coronavirus contamination found on packaging and work surfaces (see attached infographic).
The survey
For this BEAMitup was launched, a project involving the Italian Microbion in collaboration with SwissDeCode (CH), IATA CSIC (ES) and the University of Helsinki (FI). The aim is to collect and monitor the best practices adopted by companies to allow rapid identification and management of outbreaks and to ensure resilience after their containment.
The project , also aims to develop new diagnostic tools to help companies quickly and efficiently detect contamination from SARS-CoV-2 and other microorganisms on work surfaces, raw materials and finished products.
How to participate
Companies of the agri-food sector who want to participate in the survey can do so a this link.
By participating in the survey, agri-food companies can be actively involved in the project, receive updates on its development and get free consultations on the management of contamination by companies Partner.
Quick diagnosis device
The survey it will guide the development of the new rapid diagnosis device, providing information on industry needs. The device, currently under development, works with liquid matrices or swabs and is already capable of completing a full analysis in 1 hour.
In the next steps, team European Union plans to develop new tools, to validate sanitization procedures, to be combined with the test device, for which we are trying to reduce response times to just 35-40 minutes. Its final version is expected to be ready in early 2021.
For further information, info@microbion.it.
